Cervidae

Caffeine is on the list of "we should not ever be drinking this again because it dehydrates us and causes stomach ulcers" but people still drink it all the time. I personally feel I have worked too hard and undergone a life-threatening surgery and come too far to risk stomach ulcers or to sabotage my hydration/health. But that's a decision you're going to have to make for yourself. my favorite protein drink is premier protein (chocolate only) but I understand a lot of people don't like it and need to search for alternatives.

Good to hear.

Man, I looked at these and was really excited to try them, but then I saw that they are almost $4 a bottle! That's insane! I too am curious how they taste, though. Following.

er, what?

I also drank Premier Protein for my preop diet. I had two of those a day, which gave me 320 calories and 60 grams of protein, and then for dinner a small healthy meal like 3 ounces of chicken or turkey and a cup of veggies. I also doubled my Water intake that entire week because the more hydrated you are for surgery, the better! I lost ten pounds that week.

I was 22 when I started looking into surgery, 23 when I had it, and now I'm almost 8 months out and I'm 24. Feel free to ask any questions or send me a message or whatever you'd like.

edit: my previous post doubled for some reason. Ignore. XD

I've had depression and generalized anxiety disorder most of my life. For the first six months after surgery, both were up and down and I had pretty quick and severe swings. Now I'm 7.5 months out and I feel great. I'm not even taking my anxiety meds anymore, and while that's a little shaky sometimes, I'm a firm believer that my general improvement in overall health has had a great impact on my psychological health.

hold your nose while you drink it, that actually does help because it greatly reduces your ability to taste if you can't smell it. Also I don't know if you're supposed to drink it cold or room temp but cold almost always goes down smoother and has a less noticeable texture. I didn't have to do the prep, thankfully, but I totally feel your pain with the super responsive gag reflex! Hang in there and chug that sh*t!

congratulations! so exciting! Take good care of yourself.

Man, I really can relate to so much of this. I do a "chew and spit" thing all the time, too. Not only do I not enjoy food but the process of planning what to eat or forcing myself to eat is extremely anxiety-inducing for me, too. I didn't have all of these complications you had to deal with, but from day 1 I've had a really (irrational) intense worry that my new stomach isn't strong or that if I get something stuck it will just tear or explode... things that don't even really make sense or have any chance of actually happening. I feel much, much better when I restrict my calories. Maybe not physically. But mentally, on the days I have some reason (whether real or invented) to greatly restrict my calories, I feel like I'm doing well. The days I actually eat 1000-1200 calories - I've only had two of these days - I feel absolutely horrible and the urge to drink nothing but a Protein shake or two the next day is almost unbearable. The fact that I do lose more when I starve and stall or gain when I eat enough, coupled with how good my bloodwork still looks, just reaffirms my positive reaction to not eating enough and my anxiety and self-criticizing just pushes me further away from actual physical health. I'm in therapy too. Let's hope we both kick these problems in the ass in the end.

wooooooooo!

I was 9. I wasn't super overweight yet, but puberty starts very young in my family (my mom was 9 when she got her first period, and I had just turned 10 when I got mine), and that's around the time I started gaining. I remember my friend and I were weighing each other with my mom's scale in the bathroom before we went out to play and I was over 100 pounds. I was very tall for my age, at least 6 inches taller than her, but we both were kind of confused by it. I didn't think a whole lot of it until I showed my mom and she said "I'm going to need to put you on a diet!" It was then that I realized something was "wrong" with me. Funny enough, my diet wasn't my problem. I ate pretty healthy and didn't struggle with BED until my early teens. I honestly believe the nutritionists my mother frantically took me to, who all just accused me of lying and sneaking food, directly contributed to my unhealthy relationship with food and my self-image. I learned some hard, hard truths about our culture and my own place in it as an overweight person at that young age. I'm STILL trying to pull myself out of the pit of self-hatred I've been hiding in since that time.

It seems your belly button is far too low for it to be stuck food in your pouch. Could it perhaps be constipation? Have you had any diet changes recently that would be causing you a lot of gas? I get random abdominal pains that last for days sometimes too, and it's usually gas and constipation for me. A day or two of smooth move tea and collace and a LOT of Water clears it right up. Hope you get this figured out and that all is well.

Also, I was 23 when I joined my bariatric program and had surgery. I am now 24. Even as young as I am, I wish I had done this sooner. I can't tell you how often I read here or hear at my support group the same regret: "I wish I had done this when I was young, before I destroyed my joints/knees/heart/etc". Now is the time.

I was pretty worried myself, in the beginning. But then again, the tiiiiiiny risk of serious complications from surgery is a small fraction of 1%, whereas the risk of serious complications/death from obesity is enormous. When you look at it like that, it becomes not only downright safe compared to staying obese but also lifesaving, which it is! You could die from a random aneurysm in 30 seconds, or get hit by a car, or eat something that gets caught in your trachea and chokes you to death. In fact, the chances of these things happening are actually significantly higher than the chance of you having complications you can't heal from during the RNY. In the end, you've got to compare the tiny risk of something bad happening vs. the huge probability that something bad will happen if you do nothing due to the toll obesity takes on our bodies. Good luck with whatever you choose. We're all here to help.

Just make sure it's caffeine-free! That does sound lovely though, with or without gas pain.

Unfortunately, gas pain like that can only be reduced with time and moving around. Some of it may be relieved with Gas-X Strips, but generally this gas that was pumped into your abdomen during surgery is going to have to just be reabsorbed into your body. Hang in there, it gets better soon!

Things I've gotten since having my bypass: wonton soup (and I either don't eat the wontons or only eat one, as a treat. the broth is clear and delicious), chicken on a stick, beef on a stick, garlic shrimp. There are a few seafood items that you may like, I just don't know about them because besides shrimp, I hate seafood. There are a ton of meat and veggie entrees and some places even sell things like eel and squid, depending on how far inland you are. It's totally doable, just not everyday, and definitely take it slow to make sure your stomach tolerates it, as you obviously already know.

@@Sannah09 I struggled with binge eating disorder for most of my teens and early twenties. Now, my doctor thinks I have "an unhealthy obsession" with tracking my food. She also thinks I starve myself on purpose, though honestly, it's a mixture of a lot of things. When I go over 700 calories, I stall. When I eat more than like... 30 grams of carbs, I stall. Some days I honestly cannot stomach food. I think I'm just adjusting to this new life, but my doctor and my therapist are both "keeping an eye on" my habits because they are both convinced I have anorexia. Neither of them understand what it's like after surgery and how hard it can be to eat, just for physical and practical reasons. Maybe they are right and I'm completely deluding myself because of my fear of stopping/gaining. Or maybe they just don't have a whole lot experiences with patients who have had the bypass. I know, at the very least, I have serious body image issues. I'm working on it. :/

Very good advice! I need to remember this myself. This isn't a sprint, even though everything moves so fast in the beginning. This is a life-long marathon.

I have two meniscus tears and a completely destroyed ACL, and I'm sooo close to finally having a low enough bmi for the surgery to fix it. Hopefully this summer! As for the rest of it... I can only tell you what I've been experiencing. I reached 7 months post-op RNY yesterday, and I'm down 126 since surgery. This time two years ago, I weighed around 440 pounds, so by now I've lost around 180 from my highest. I knew this whole process would be... difficult. Or baffling, at the very least. It's also been revealing of my friends, of my family, and of the self I buried under almost 300 extra pounds of weight. It's been a wild roller coaster of hormones and an indescribable sense of relief that I now have a chance to live past 30. Looking in the mirror is a confusing experience. I barely recognize myself, I don't feel at all like myself, and at the same time I somehow feel bigger and more obviously overweight than I did when I was over 400 pounds (super weird, right?). I now obsess over what I should wear, and change out of multiple outfits, and end up leaving the house still feeling very visible, like a giant sore thumb. Sex is a very different and, in some ways, more enjoyable experience than it used to be, and yet I feel more self-conscious now than I ever did. I think all of these new insecurities aren't popping into existence because of how heavy I actually still am - that's still a confusing thing for me visually. I know what I am on the scale, I know I probably have 30-40 pounds of excess skin at this point, and still, I feel this anxiety and insecurity about my looks. I think this is all centered around my very rapidly shifting sense of identity. I'm so, so different on the outside. How could I not be? I'm approaching 200 pounds lost. But the outside changes don't even hold a candle to how strange and incredible it feels inside. 7 months and I'm still trying to process all of this. At this point, I'm just going to Celebrate my progress and health and hang on for the ride. I would do all of this over again a thousand times if I needed to, and with a huge smile on my face and a song in my heart.

I'd really like to follow this. Great topic of discussion. Sorry about your possible ED troubles. I can relate. :/

I used body fortress brand chocolate protein powder (from walmart. reasonably priced). It tasted like a brownie and with 8 ounces of milk was a LOT of protein, like over 30. I drank it three times a day for the first several weeks. Then I switched to premier because I suddenly couldn't stand any powdered protein anymore. >.>